Poland beat Canada and continue their march at Philippines 2025

Poland claimed their rightful quarterfinal spot at the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in the Philippines. On Saturday in Pasay City, the finalists of the previous three editions overcame Canada’s resistance in a four-set eighthfinal. The number one team in the FIVB World Ranking will take on Turkiye in one of the two quarterfinal matches set to take place on Wednesday, September 24.

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Poland stayed well in control of the scoreboard for the most part in all four sets, taking advantage of the abundant mistakes on the Canadian side, on the way to a convincing 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-18, 25-14) victory. Only in the money time of the second set, the North Americans managed to break through the Polish domination and win the set.

Canada gifted Poland as many as 35 points in unforced errors, while their opponents made only 16 of those. The European side also dominated in serving by 5-2 in aces, and in net defense by 10-7 in kill blocks. Outside hitter Kamil Semeniuk registered a 60% success rate in attack and raised three kill blocks to lead his team with a total of 18 points. Star opposite and captain Bartosz Kurek contributed 15 points, including one ace and one block. Another big star on the Polish squad, Cuban-born outside Wilfredo Leon, fired three aces and put up one kill block to reach the double digits with a total of 14 points.

“It was another hard game. Of course, we are happy that we won the game and we are still in the tournament. Now we have a few days to prepare for the quarterfinal against Turkiye. We will sure use this time to get into the best shape possible ahead of this game,” Semeniuk told VBTV. “We don’t look at other teams’ results at this tournament. We try to be focused on us, on our volleyball, on our team… Tunnel vision until the final, like our coach always says. I think my best shape is still ahead and that applies to all our team. I hope the peak of our level is in the future, in the most important game of this tournament.”

Canada outdid Poland in the number of successful attacks, 52 against 48. Their opposite Sharone Vernon-Evans (Sho) was the best scorer of the match. He spiked at a 57% success rate and put away two kill blocks and an ace to finish with a match-high 23 points. Outside hitter Jackson Young, who closed the second set off for Canada with a monster block, also hit 11 points in offense and signed off with a total of 12.

“We are obviously not so happy we lost, of course, but I think there were good things in the game. Of course, they are a great team, but we know this is the benchmark in where we want to be, so we’ve got to just keep building. We definitely grew as a team throughout the tournament. With me coming in later in the summer and Nick (Nicholas Hoag) coming back, I think it took time to gel, but I think we did a good job and we are taking a step in the right direction,” Sho commented after the match. “It feels good. It definitely feels like I belong, and the guys did a good job helping me come back and welcoming me in. I just wanted to try to bring what I was doing over in Japan and try to help the team be the best we can.”

The eighthfinal round in Pasay City continues on Sunday at 15:30 local time (07:30 UTC) with a big match between Argentina and Italy, followed by the all-European clash between Belgium and Finland at 20:00 (12:20).

2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship: full schedule and results

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